As of today I’ve been in China for two months! It seems like the longer I’m here the faster time goes. So much has happened in the past several weeks that I don’t even know where to start! I should take a moment to forewarn you that I’m currently avoiding a mountain of homework and studying, so this post is likely to include a lot of ramble.
Two weeks ago was Qing Ming Jie, which is the Tomb Sweeping Holiday. Traditionally families take time to sweep out their ancestors’ tombs, light incense, and other such honorable things. For us foreigners it just meant three days off of class. Although, even though we had Monday through Wednesday off of class, we had to make up two of those days the Saturday and Sunday before. Once again China demonstrates how different it is from the U.S. Anyway, the Sunday of that week I took the high speed train (高铁gao tie)from Beijing to Shanghai. If you have ever met me, you probably know that I LOVE TRAINS! So basically five hours of cruising along at 300km/h was a thrill ride to me. I’ll spare you my spiel about trains for the sake of your sanity.
I arrived in Shanghai in middle afternoon, dumped my bag at a friend’s apartment and headed to the Bund. The Bund is a stretch of riverfront that has a lot of really neat buildings and a nice boardwalk that’s handy for taking pictures of the Shanghai skyline. While we were there we witnessed a guy fall into the river and pass out with his face down in the water, so someone jumped in to get his head out of the water. There weren’t any stairs for them to get back up, so they had to wait in the water while the water police were called and made their way over. Everything was fine in the end, but it definitely made for a dramatic welcome to Shanghai.
Apart from the Bund we also went to East Nanjing Road, People’s Square, the Urban Planning Exhibition, and the Yuyuan Garden. On Tuesday we went to Zhujiajiao, wich is a village with canals instead of roads, kind of similar to venice. It was a really touristy place, but it was still really neat. We hired a guy to row us around for awhile, and naturally I asked him to take us past all the best bridges. Shanghai is also really famous for Xiao Long Bao, which are dumplings filled with soup. In my opinion these are arguably China’s greatest contribution to humankind. I’m drooling a little bit just thinking about them. Most people hold the dumpling over a bowl or spoon and nibble a smidgen off the side, let the soup pour out and then drink it up. I prefer to toss the whole thing in my mouth and pop it like a gusher so that all the scalding hot soup gives me third degree burns on the insides of my cheeks. I feel that it really adds to the dining experience.
Wednesday morning before leaving Shanghai I got to ride the Maglev out to the airport and back. During rush hour the train has a max speed of 420km/h. The time of day I road it they were only operating at 300km/h, which was a slight disappointment, but I thought it was exhilarating all the same. Later that afternoon we made our way to the train station again and headed back to Beijing.
Last weekend there wasn’t much worth reporting. We had quite a bit of homework due this past week, and next week we have midterms so I’ve been spending quite a bit of time doing other things to avoid all that. Hence the blog post. Among my many procrastinating ventures, I decided that I really wanted to play some soccer. I walk past the soccer field every day and there are always people playing, but I’ve been too afraid to try to join a game. Thursday I really grabbed life by the horns and made it happen. My language buddy went to the field with me and we joined a random game. In my usual fashion, I ended up making quite a fool of myself, but had a great time doing it. My soccer skills are essentially non existent, so I mostly just did a lot of running around trying to look competent. A couple times I managed to dribble past some people, but then promptly turned and passed the ball to someone on the other team. In my defense, there were a lot of guys wearing red shirts parading around like my teammates. In the hour and a half that I was there, I think the only thing I said was 对不起 dui bu qi, which means “sorry”. Despite my pitiful performance on the pitch, they kept letting me play, for which I was grateful.
This weekend has mostly been devoted to homework and studying. I never guessed that they’d make me do work while studying abroad, but I suppose it had to happen sometime. That being said, I should probably conclude this post. Missing everyone back home, especially the guy at Alleycat Deli on Northland. What I wouldn’t give for a pastrami sandwich right now. Or a roast beef sandwich from the Cherry Deli. Or anything that my Mom cooks. Or a huge pile of brisket. mmmmmmmmmm…….
